As requested, and promised in the video, here are pictures of some of my SS vehicles.
COMPLETELY STOCK: I have three or four of each body style on my workshop shelves for future conversions but keep one of each type on display with my others. The REA Express Van in the upper left is interesting. It is an original K-Line product from the first year of SS and differs from all the other SS vehciles I have ever seen in having a metal chassis instead of plastic, and a small e-board installed with an On-Off switch underneath, in addition to the operating light bar. It is not labeled on its box as a SS product, just K-Line, and is often not listed as an SS vehicle on websites (e.g., Western Depot). SS vehicles are hard to find and will be until Bachman gets them in full production - there seem to be more of these available than any others, perhaps because they are not listed as SS and thus don't come up on searches by people lloking just for SS (Western Depot, for example, has about 40 in stock, but no other SS vehciles currently.
-- I know Lionel's early-era track inspection vehicle is not strictly SS, but it is a 1:48 scale 1940's Ford sedan. It has to be modified (parts of the metal chassis ground away) to permit clearance so the front wheels can turn sharply enough to track on SS curves but otherwise runs fine on SS, just looks weird on a road with its front wheels.
NO MODIFICATIONS, BUT ADDITIONS. These five were made without removing the bodies or making any internal mods. If I repainted then I did so fully assembly, just masking them well. Two on the right just have a "shell" added to wrap around the stock body. I particularly like the firetruck, which I made by using pieces and firemen from a "fireman set" I got at my LHS.
PULLING TRAILERS AND SUCH can add a lot of fun and variety to SS, as shown below. A trailer or towed vehicle without flanged wheels will usually behave itself (track nicely, not get its wheels caught in the Ss road groves) as long as it is very light (the car being towed has a plastic body, not die-cast) and its rolling axle is no more than about 4 inches from the rear axle of the SS vehicle. Otherwise, it is best to use flanged wheels as on the trailers on the top row. Those on any long trailer should pivot (like on railroad rolling stock, as do those on the upper right trailer) so it tracks well, those on the trailer with the orange tractor do not and its about a long a trailer as one can run without pivoting wheels.
LIGHT MODIFICATIONS. The vehicles shown below required removing the stock body and working on it, but all have a completely stock chassis. The two military vehicles in rear were made by cutting (bandsaw) the stock body of the bus (left) and step van (right) and playfully adding stuff from a large box of "stuff" I keep with odd parts from old models, etc. The red truck uses the vintage truck chassis (and truck bed) unmodified, just with a 1:43 pickup cab shell grafted on: some diecast metal truck cabs including one Corgi one fit with almost no effort of mods at all. The early era inspection vehicle required a little drilling of its chassis before it would accept axle+wheels from the SS vintage truck, but the rear axle then slipped in and meshed with the motor perfectly, resulting in a scale 1940 ford that runs very well on SS roads now (this one still has its TMCC installed and working).
CARS, I LOVE CARS BUT THEY DO REQUIRE A LOT OF WORK TO CONVERT. I've made a bunch of cars from 1:43 die-cast models. Here are some of my favorites. All required the vintage truck chassis be used (only SS with car-size wheels) and shortening of the wheelbase. The '57 Chevy is the first conversion ever I did -- I accidentally epoxied the front axle solid - it's straight and level but it won't roll. Despite this, the car is a great runner, never giving problems - and from more than three feet away you can't tell that the front wheels aren't turning.
TRACTOR-TRAILERS. Each of those shown here and my others were all learning experiences and each a better runner than the previous. . The first one I made ran so poorly it no longer exists: I took it apart for parts for #2 (green cab, back right) which is a logging truck (a set of logs fits over the wooden trailer frame shown, but I couldn't find them this morning. Red truck is my favorite look but it has too little weight over its drive wheels and doesn't perform well on slopes : I can fix this and probably will. Green and yellow is a very good runner and has an e-unit and speak with empty sound board socket in the van. Red and yellow-green both have electrical pickup from all axles and a center pickup under each axle. As such they have electrical continuity far superior to stock SS vehicles and thus will run noticeably smoother at low speeds. My ultimately goal is a smoke unit in the cab and diesel sound.
SPEAKING OF LOW SPEEDS, I've made three city buses using shortened Corgi diecast bodies, with basically scratch-built chassis that use a full-size O gauge diesel loco motor about six times the size of a stock SS motor -- its power and big flywheel assuring smooth operation, and a custom-built reduction gearbox giveing very slow speeds (see the video posted this morning - 10 mph). They will go as low as 1/2 mph scale speed, but I set one or two or these running and let them constantly orbit downtown at 10 mph whenever I am operating my trains.
